Committee of Voters: parliamentarians have not kept their promises

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] has issued a press statement in which it criticizes National Deputies of the present Verkhovna Rada for not keeping their pre-election promises. Its monitoring has found that this session was least efficient and most full of conflict.

Due to political discord parliament was not able to carry out its work in a professional and adequate fashion.  Problems arose at every step, in forming a coalition, in the election of Speaker, appointing the Cabinet of Ministers, voting for the Budget, etc.  The CVU also notes that for almost a year parliament worked without deputy speakers which, it believes, made an already difficult task harder. It says that most of the sessions were wasted with breaks and blocking of parliament.

CVU considers that National Deputies have not kept their pre-election promises, and factions’ positions have often been determined by considerations of political expediency, and not the interests of the voters or the party’s programme. It comments that even amendments to the Constitution have been turned into election strategy and elements of political wheeling and dealing.

Another area noted was the systematic violation of the rights and interests of deputies by the factions’ leaders.

“it has become regular practice to take voting cards away, to exert control over people’s free choice during secret voting, as well as blackmail and bribery. For the first time in Ukraine’s parliamentary history, National Deputy Sviatoslav Vakarchuk renounced his mandate, not wishing to work under such circumstances, and the Speaker Arseny Yatsenyuk stepped down as Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.”

The CVU points out that 2635 draft laws have been registered this session, this being 700 less that during a year’s work of the previous Verkhovna Rada which was also working under conditions of political crisis. Furthermore, an analysis of the draft laws registered shows that most are of a technical nature, scheduling early local elections, ratifying international agreements, etc.  Only one tenth of the draft laws registered have been considered as a result of parliament’s work constantly being blocked.

The CVU has been carrying out monitoring of the work of the Verkhovna Rada and local councils for several years. The monitoring includes qualitative and quantitative analysis of the legislative activities of National Deputies, their implementation of pre-elections promises and an analysis of their direct work with voters.

The Committee previously predicted that early parliamentary elections would be held on 21 December. CVU Head Ihor Popov believes that the President will not delay with dissolving parliament.

Based on information at: www.cvu.org.ua